Our Impact
Ensuring a healthy and sustainable ocean
Plymouth Marine Laboratory delivers world-class marine research with real-world impact - working with sustainable businesses, informing policy, and developing tools to guide a responsible blue economy. Our Research Impact Plan drives us toward a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient ocean.
Our plan for impact
How we deliver change
Benefiting society and the environment
Delivering research that benefits society and the environment is core to PML's ethos. We encourage all our staff to play a role in achieving impact and realising the potential of our research.
Bringing positive change
Our research is most likely to bring about positive change if we are responsive to external drivers, receptive to stakeholder needs, strategic in our approach, and communicate knowledge in appropriate ways to a variety of audiences.
Delivering impactful research
PML has a strong track record of delivering impactful research. Our ongoing transition to increasingly impact-led research focuses on broadening our reach to society as a whole, involving all staff and students in the process.
Working for our vision
The Research Impact Plan sets out the strategy to achieve impact leading to our vision: a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient ocean with diverse and productive ecosystems, enhancing human health and wellbeing.Impact case studies
Science with reach and significance
The story of PML's impact is told through a series of case studies that describe and evidence how our science made a material contribution to real-world change. These are independently evaluated every 5–6 years by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), in a process that mirrors the national Research Excellence Framework.
Shaping policy and reducing marine plastic pollution
PML was the first organisation to identify that microplastics are damaging zooplankton — the most numerous animals on Earth and a key link in oceanic food chains. This finding has since shaped marine plastic policy at the highest levels.
Satellite-derived ocean front maps inform designation of MPAs
PML used satellite data to address a fundamental conservation challenge: area-based protections do not always safeguard highly mobile marine fauna such as basking sharks and sea turtles. Our ocean front maps provide a practical means to close that gap.
Putting ocean acidification onto the international agenda
PML scientists identified ocean acidification as a critical issue as early as a 2004 Defra review, and have since been pivotal in placing the science firmly onto the international agenda — contributing to Royal Society reports and global policy frameworks.
Valuing the marine environment for better management
PML researchers were the first to systematically identify and quantify the value of benefits derived from the sea. These valuations have enabled informed management decisions by providing a common currency to assess and compare marine ecosystem services.Get involved
Help us continue to develop solutions to environmental challenges and make a lasting difference to the health of our ocean.
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